J&J, based in New Brunswick, New Jersey, won’t enforce
patent claims against drugmakers that copy the pill. Prezista,
or darunavir, is an antiretroviral medication used to treat the
immune system-destroying virus, in combination with other anti-viral drugs.

Last year, J&J sold $1.21 billion of Prezista, making it
the company’s sixth best-selling drug. The agreement states that
generics manufacturers can only distribute the medicine for
patients living in the African and least-developed countries.
About 34.2 million people worldwide are infected with HIV,
including 22.9 million in Africa, according to the World Health
Organization.

“Intellectual property should not be a barrier to ensuring
a sustainable supply of medically acceptable darunavir in the
world’s poorest countries,” Paul Stoffels, J&J’s worldwide
chairman of pharmaceuticals, said in a statement yesterday.

Prezista is used in patients who’ve already been on and
failed other HIV treatments because the virus becomes resistant
to them. Yesterday’s statement didn’t identify specific
countries subject to the agreement.

For more patent news, click here.

Trademarks

Zynga Bests Mattel in U.K. Dispute Over Scrabble Tile Trademark

Zynga Inc., the San Francisco-based social-gaming company,
defeated part of a trademark-infringement lawsuit brought in the
U.K. by Mattel Inc.

The suit was related to the shape of the tiles used in the
Scrabble word game. Mattel sued in March, claiming Zynga’s
“Scramble” online game infringed four Mattel trademarks.

One of those trademarks covers the shape of the “three-dimensional ivory-colored tile on the top surface of which is
shown a letter of the Roman alphabet and a number in the range 1
to 10.” Zynga contended that the U.K. trademark was improperly
registered.

In its court filings, Zynga said that the registration
failed to cover the “infinite number of permutations of
different sized, positions and combinations of letter and
number,” or the precise shape of the tile, or to state with
sufficient specificity what color “ivory” actually is.

In his Nov. 28 opinion, Justice Richard Arnold agreed with
Zynga. He said that the registration “amounts to an attempt to
claim a perpetual monopoly on all conceivable ivory-colored
tiles shapes which bear any letter and color combination on the
top surface.”

Opus Dei Files Suit in Denmark Against Publisher of Card Game

Dema Games ApS registered “Opus Dei Existence After
Religion” as a trademark for its game in 2009, and has said
that “no one entity can claim sole rights to religious concepts
of any kind,” according to AP.

The 84-year-old Opus Dei, which became widely known through
Dan Brown’s “The Da Vinci Code” novel, is seeking cancellation
of the trademark, 300,000 Danish kroner ($52,200) in
compensation and the shutdown of the website through with the
game is sold, the news service reported.

The case, which was brought by the organization’s Spanish
branch, is being heard in the Danish Maritime and Commercial
High Court, AP reported.

Baltica Acquires ‘Bastion’ Trademark, Seven Baltic-Region Stores

AS Baltica, an Estonian retail clothing chain, acquired the
Bastion trademark and seven retail stores operated under that
name, the Tallinn, Estonia-based company said in a statement
yesterday.

Bastion, an Estonian brand created in 1987, had sales of
$1.4 million euros ($1.8 million) in 2011. Six of the acquired
stores are in Estonia and one is in Latvia.

Copyright

TD Sues Vernon Hill for Infringing Copyright to Book He Wrote

The complaint, filed in federal court in Camden, New
Jersey, accuses Hill of infringing the copyright to a manuscript
to which the Canadian bank holds the copyright.

According to court papers, a book Hill wrote, “Fans! Not
Customers: How to Create Growth Companies in a No Growth
World,” contains “large amounts of text” that are copied
verbatim from the manuscript.

TD Bank alleged that Hill signed a written agreement
acknowledging that it owned the copyright to the manuscript. The
bank also said that Hill filed a motion in a 2008 suit seeking
to have the copyright reassigned to him. That suit, filed in the
same court, was related to Hill’s 2007 termination by Commerce
Bancorp, where he was president and chief executive officer.

Hill didn’t respond immediately to an e-mailed request to
Metro Bank seeking comment on the case.

In court papers, TD Bank said the disputed manuscript was
submitted to Penguin Group in 2006 for possible publication. At
that time, the bank said, Hill signed an agreement in which he
“unconditionally” guaranteed that the manuscript was a work
for hire under U.S. copyright law.

In November, TD Bank said it learned about the publication
of Hill’s book, published by Profile Books Ltd. and sold through
Amazon.com’s website and others. The bank claims the book
constitutes the “unauthorized reproduction, distribution,
publication, public display and creation of a derivative work”
of the manuscript.’’

Because Hill has filed court papers seeking to end the
bank’s ownership of the copyright, the bank claims his
infringement is “willful and intentional.”

TD Bank asked the court for an order barring further
infringement of the copyright and for the seizure of all copies
of Hill’s books. Additionally, it seeks awards of money damages,
litigation costs and attorney fees.

The case is TD Bank NA v. Hill, 12-cv-07188, U.S. District
Court, District of New Jersey (Camden). The earlier case is Hill
v. Diflorio, 09-cv-03685, U.S. District Court, District of New
Jersey (Camden).

For more copyright news, click here.

Trade Secrets/Industrial Espionage

Michigan Couple Stole GM Secrets for Chinese, U.S. Says

A former General Motors Co. engineer and her husband should
be convicted of stealing the automaker’s trade secrets related
to hybrid-car technology to help develop such vehicles in China,
a U.S. prosecutor said at the end of their trial.

Shanshan Du, the ex-GM employee, copied the Detroit-based
company’s private information on the motor control of hybrids
and provided documents to her husband, Yu Qin, the government
alleges. Qin used the confidential data to seek business
ventures or employment with GM’s competitors, including the
Chinese automaker Chery Automobile Co., the U.S. said.

“Theft is at the heart of this case,” prosecutor Cathleen
Corken said yesterday in federal court in Detroit in closing
arguments. Acquiring the GM information was “purposeful,
deliberate and criminal,” she told the jury.

Both defendants have pleaded not guilty. Their lawyers
argued earlier in the trial that the information at issue wasn’t
trade secrets, weren’t stolen and were useless for other
companies.

The case is U.S. v. Qin, 10-cr-20454, U.S. District Court,
Eastern District of Michigan (Detroit).